President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart — on opposite sides of a civil war but using delicate language about a difference of opinion — said Monday that they shared an interest in stopping the bloodshed in Syria, as the White House planned to announce more than $300 million in a new humanitarian aid package to go to the war-torn country and its neighbors. 

Obama and President Vladimir Putin met at the Group of Eight summit in Northern Ireland, their first time talking face to face in more than a year. 

The meeting came days after Obama angered Moscow by authorizing military help for the rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad. The two-year conflict has left more than 90,000 people dead. Putin is Assad’s strongest ally. 

The newest round of humanitarian aid puts the total U.S. spending on relief efforts at $800 million. Less than half of Monday’s announced total will go to Syria, with the rest going to help neighboring countries who have taken on refugees, the White House said. The United States has contributed more to humanitarian aid during the civil war than any other country. 

“Of course our opinions do not coincide,” Putin said through an interpreter after the meeting with Obama. “But all of us have the intention to stop the violence in Syria.”

“Of course our opinions do not coincide,” Putin said through an interpreter after the meeting with Obama. “But all of us have the intention to stop the violence in Syria.”

Obama also chose careful words. He said that the two leaders “have differing perspectives on the problem, but we share an interest in reducing the violence.” Both presidents said they hoped to push the two sides in Syria to the bargaining table.

Putin criticized the West's position during talks with Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron on the eve of the summit, saying that the rebels were cannibals.

"I think you will not deny that one does not really need to support the people who not only kill their enemies, but open up their bodies, eat their intestines, in front of the public and cameras," Putin said at a tense joint news conference with Cameron on Sunday.

Peter Muhly / AFP - Getty Images

Barack Obama, wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia are greeted by Joan Christie, The Queen's official representative in County Antrim, upon arrival at Belfast International Airport, Northern Ireland, on Monday.

The two leaders did, however, say they were on similar pages when it came to North Korea and Iran. Both men voiced cautious optimism about the election of Hassan Rowhani in Iran, offering hope that he will work with the U.S. and Russia to resolve the problems surrounding the country's attempts to develop nuclear weapons. 

Putin and Obama also said they had agreed to increase interaction with North Korea.

Following the bilateral meeting, the two countries announced they would hold another meeting in Moscow in September around the time of the Group of Twenty summit.

Besides the United States and Russia, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Italy and Germany are members of the G-8, a group of the world’s wealthiest economies.

Before he sat down with Putin, Obama delivered a speech on sustaining Catholic-Protestant reconciliation 15 years after the U.S.-brokered Good Friday peace accord. He spoke in Belfast's Waterfront Hall, a glass-fronted building that would never have been built during the city's long era of car bombs that ended with a 1997 Irish Republican Army cease-fire.

In his speech, Obama said that the peace achieved in Northern Ireland — part of the United Kingdom, unlike the Republic of Ireland just south of the border — after decades of violence known as the Troubles was an example for those struggling to end violence around the world.

"Beyond these shores right now in scattered corners of the world there are people living in the grip of conflict, ethnic conflict, religious conflict, tribal conflicts," he said.  "And they are groping for a way to find a way to discover how to move beyond the heavy hand of history — to put aside the violence. ... And they're wondering perhaps if Northern Ireland can achieve peace we can too. So you're their blueprint to follow."

The G-8 summit was being held just minutes from the town of Enniskillen, a small town with a painful past.  In 1987, militants belonging to the Irish Republican Army bombed the town's annual memorial ceremony for British war veterans. The attack killed 11 people and injured 63.

In a sign of how much has changed, last year Queen Elizabeth made history by walking across the town’s narrow high street between the Protestant and Catholic churches which face one another, 25th anniversary of the bombing. It was the first time the queen had ever set foot in a Catholic church on the island of Ireland.

Obama stressed that maintaining the peace was a constant struggle:

“Whether you are a good neighbor to someone from the other side of past battles -- that's up to you. Whether you treat them with the dignity and respect they deserve -- that's up to you. Whether you let your kids play with kids who attend a different church -- that's your decision. Whether you take a stand against violence and hatred, and tell extremists on both sides that no matter how many times they attack the peace, they will not succeed -- that is in your hands. And whether you reach your own outstretched hand across dividing lines, across peace walls, to build trust in a spirit of respect -- that's up to you.”  

Obama was traveling with his wife, Michelle, who spoke before him in Belfast, and their two daughters.

In the afternoon, Obama, Cameron and European leaders launched negotiations for the world's most ambitious free-trade deal, promising that the eventual agreement would create thousands of new jobs and speed-up growth in the U.S. and European Union.

“America and Europe have done extraordinary things together before and I believe we can forge an economic alliance as strong as our diplomatic and security alliances, which of course, have been the most powerful in history,” Obama said at a press conference announcing the deal. 

Meanwhile, a British newspaper reported Britain intercepted telephone calls and monitored computers used by foreign ministers taking part in two high-level international meetings. 

The Guardian said some delegates from countries in the Group of 20 -- which comprises top economies around the world -- used Internet cafes that had been set up by British intelligence agencies to read their emails in London in 2009. The report was published hours before leaders of the G-8 countries -- all of which are in the G-20 -- started the Northern Ireland summit.

Earlier this month, the newspaper reported details of surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) of phone records and Internet data in the U.S. The newspaper said the evidence was contained in documents that were leaked by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Northern Ireland's police appear to be leaving little to chance in ensuring security around the Lough Erne resort just outside Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. More than 3,500 officers were drafted in from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland, bringing the total number of officers on duty each day of the summit to 8,000.

Army engineers helped set up steel fences and coiled razor wire for miles around the resort's lone road entrance.  

Only 2,000 protesters were expected to travel to the remote resort for Monday night's main planned demonstration. 

NBC News' Emma Ong, Andrew Rafferty, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related stories:

Derelict Northern Ireland shops get facelift ahead of G-8 summit

'Like a war movie': Painful past of the small town hosting the G-8 summit

This story was originally published on Mon Jun 17, 2013 3:18 PM EDT

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

A man walks his dog past a vacant store, with graphics pasted to the outside to make it look like a working butcher's shop -- down to a fake open door --in the village of Belcoo, Northern Ireland.The upcoming G-8 summit will be held at a nearby golf resort. Local councils in Northern Ireland have painted fake shop fronts and covered derelict buildings with huge billboards to hide the economic hardship being felt in towns and villages near the golf resort where world leaders will meet.

The Northern Ireland border village of Belcoo has never looked so good. And critics say that's just the problem.

Organizers of the Group of Eight summit of world leaders in Northern Ireland June 17-18 have spent weeks sprucing up the facades of businesses all around the County Fermanagh venue. Their use of window-sized posters on two derelict Belcoo shops, to make them appear like thriving businesses with fully stocked shelves, has proved most eye-catching — indeed, eye-fooling.

While many in the border village of barely 500 residents and two pubs applaud the novel use of posters to give their home a cheerier look, some complain they've covered up the reality of economic hard times.

To passing motorists, the former Flanagan's butcher's shop in Belcoo looks packed to the rafters with fresh cuts of meat. Its locked door even has a poster on it, depicting an open door so convincing that would-be shoppers have nearly strolled into the wall.

In reality Belcoo, which lies directly on the Republic of Ireland border and about 10 miles south of the luxury golf resort hosting the G8 summit, has been hard hit by the staggering collapse of Ireland's Celtic Tiger economy. Read the full story.

Peter Morrison / AP

Women walk past a derelict shop, its windows covered in giant posters to make it look like an inviting cheese shop, in Fivemiletown, a village on the road to Enniskillen, the site of the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

Security fencing covered with scenic pictures of County Fermanagh surrounds an unfinished building site in the village of Irvinestown, June 3, 2013.

Peter Morrison / AP

A woman walks past a derelict shop, its windows covered in giant posters to make it look like a cafe, in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland on June 6, 2013.

Peter Muhly / AFP - Getty Images

A derelict caravan is seen on June 14 with the letters 'G8 H Quarters' written on it in a field near the Lough Erne Golf Resort, where the G-8 summit will be held.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

Waste ground is hidden by a protective screen printed with scenic views of Fermanagh, near the Lough Erne Golf Resort on June 10, 2013.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

A girl runs past anti-G-8 posters stuck to a wall along the Falls Road in West Belfast on June 14, 2013.

Peter Morrison / AP

A member of ground staff paints a sign on the 18th tee box at Lough Erne Golf Resort on June 6, 2013. The resort is due to host the G-8 summit on June 17-18.

Related:

Northern Ireland's famed murals take a more peaceful tone

Ghost towns tell the story of Ireland's faded dream

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland – As President Barack Obama heads to Northern Ireland for Monday’s G-8 summit, so too will thousands of anti-capitalist demonstrators, posing a challenge for police even in an area used to high security.

Over 5,000 are expected to attend a union-organized anti-G-8 rally in Belfast on Saturday, and hundreds more have pledged to march from the host town, Enniskillen, to the security cordon surrounding the Lough Erne golf resort where world leaders will meet.

Protests are part and parcel of global summits, particularly since the 1999 World Trade Organization Ministerial meeting that saw days of serious violence on the streets of Seattle.

There are fears that anarchist groups could infiltrate the protests, as they did during the G-20 in Canada three years ago, where the streets of Toronto saw clashes between demonstrators and police.

Protesters have already been out on the streets of London, where 57 were arrested after running battles with police on Tuesday.

Amid this backdrop, Northern Ireland is mounting the biggest police operation in its history, with 8,000 officers on duty each day of the event, 3,600 of whom have traveled across from mainland Britain. The Irish government will also be deploying 900 police to the nearby border, according to Channel 4 News.

Officers have received training in the deployment of water cannons in the event that protests escalate.

They are aided by the local territory. The small, rural border town of Enniskillen has a population of only 15,000 and the spectacular hotel venue is away from the center, surrounded on three sides by the waters of Lough Erne, providing a natural defense.

Andy Rain / EPA

Riot police clash with demonstrators during anti G-8 protests in London, Tuesday.

“We’re not a bunch of low-lifes that are wanting to protest for the sake of protesting,” said Frank Duffy, one of the organizers of Monday’s “G-8 Not Welcome” march that includes environmentalists, anti-capitalists, trade unionists and peace campaigners as well as political activists from the republican and socialist movements in Northern Ireland.

“We are a broad-based community group. We want a peaceful dignified protest. We don’t want people to come here and cause trouble.”

Chief Constable Matt Baggott of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, assured reporters last week that the freedom to demonstrate would be respected.

“The right to assemble and the right to protest is ingrained in the way we do business and we have been used to this for many years,” he said. “Every facility will be made for people who want to demonstrate lawfully and peacefully in Northern Ireland, but clearly we will be prepared for every eventuality.”

One major complication is the threat from dissident Irish republican groups, who are still active despite the 2005 Irish Republican Army ceasefire secured after two decades of peace talks.

Paul Mcerlane / EPA

Police Service of Northern Ireland patrol Lough Erne on June 9. The body of water surrounds on three sides the golf resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, where the G-8 Summit will be held.

In this instance it is police and the military that are under threat, rather than world leaders, as many Irish nationalists view them as occupying forces. Counter-terror officers will be key to thwarting any attack.

"This [threat] is aimed at essentially the security services in Northern Ireland...the police service and my colleagues who are seen as a  way of achieving ambitions," Baggot said.

Enniskillen was the scene of one of the darkest atrocities of "The Troubles" between Protestants and Loyalists supporting British rule and Catholics and Irish nationalists seeking a united Ireland.

Anger at the presence of British soldiers in Northern Ireland lay behind the 1987 bomb attack on a Remembrance Day ceremony – equivalent to Memorial Day in the United States – that killed 11 people and wounded 68 others.

“Dissident republicans are a bit of a sad reality and background of our day to day business,” said PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Alistair Finlay. “We will probably see a number of different events, hoaxes, potential attacks on police officers. Those could well happen during the period of the summit but not near to the summit, more likely in some other parts of Northern Ireland.”

Protesters have voiced concerns about the scale of the police operation.

 “We’re going to let our local issues be heard, but the police are obviously anticipating a worst-case scenario,”said Donal O’Cofaigh, another organizer of the “G-8 Not Welcome” demonstrations. “We are slightly concerned about the scale of the policing response, but we’re working with them locally and hoping that we can take it forward in an entirely peaceful manner.”

Although the police presence is large, it represents a shift away from decades of heavy involvement by the British army, which has been at the forefront of security in Northern Ireland since the early 1970s.

Peter Morrison / AP

The Lough Erne Golf Resort, Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, which is surrounded by water is due to host the G-8 summit.

“Northern Ireland is a very different place than when it was 10 or 20 years ago,” said Baggot. “We are the authority…we are the police, and the support from our military colleagues is logistical or very technical. So the military will not be involved in dealing with protests or issues such as security.”

Local residents and businesses have already made their own plans. In Belfast, shops, restaurants and multi-national banks are expected to close or shutter their fronts in case violence flares, the Belfast Telegraph reported. Plastic sheeting has already been placed over stained glass windows at Belfast City Hall where marchers will converge on Saturday.

Queen's University has said it plans to close all of its buildings over the extended weekend amid fears they could be targeted by militants.

The authorities remained upbeat. 

“I am confident we have the right people, with the right skills, who can deliver this safely,” said Finlay.

NBC’s Michele Neubert, Alastair Jamieson and Richard O’Kelly contributed to this report.

Northern Irish police defused a bomb in a car on Saturday close to where G8 leaders will meet at a summit in June and said that the device was likely to have been intended for a police station nearby.

Army bomb disposal experts defused the device after a security operation that lasted almost 36 hours in the county Fermanagh town of Enniskillen. The Group of Eight leaders meet just outside the town in three months' time.

A senior Northern Irish officer said police believed the bomb was en route to a police station in a town nearby and would have killed or injured people if it had not been intercepted.

"Once again our community has been disrupted and the lives of residents put at risk by an element intent on causing loss of life and disruption," District Commander Pauline Shields said in a statement.

"The people responsible for this have no regard for the lives of anyone in our community. It is fortunate that no-one was killed or seriously injured as a result of this reckless act."

A 1998 peace deal largely ended more than three decades of violence in the British-controlled province between mainly Catholic Irish nationalists seeking union with Ireland and predominantly Protestant unionists who want to remain part of the United Kingdom.

However militant nationalists, who include former operatives who split from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) after it declared a ceasefire, still stage sporadic gun and bomb attacks and have targeted security forces in particular.

An attempt to fire mortar bombs at a police station was foiled earlier this month in what would have been the first attack of its kind in the United Kingdom since the peace deal ended the IRA's campaign of violence.

Related:

• Flag fury ignites some of Northern Ireland's worst violence in 15 years
• Five police injured in rioting in Northern Ireland
• 16 police officers wounded in Northern Ireland clashes

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

A mural in the Bogside area of Derry depicts Operation Motorman, a 1972 British army operation aimed at reclaiming "no-go areas" in the city from the IRA.

The story of Northern Ireland's troubled history has long been told in painted murals on the walls of its cities, towns and villages. But as Cathal McNaughton explains in a post on Reuters' Photographers Blog, the images commemorating ancient battles and honoring paramilitary groups are now being joined by paintings celebrating sporting successes and cultural achievements.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

A mural in the Bogside area of Derry depicts a petrol bomber during the Battle of the Bogside which took place in 1969 between residents of the area and the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

A mural in the Bogside area of Derry commemorates the beginning of the struggle for democratic rights.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

People walk past a Loyalist paramilitary mural in the Shankill Road area of West Belfast.

By Cathal McNaughton, Reuters

A 15-foot-high mural of a gunman dressed in army fatigues and a balaclava clutching an AK-47 is painted on the wall of a house in a residential street. People walk by and don't even notice it.

In other parts of the UK and Ireland there would probably be outrage, but not in Northern Ireland, where young children happily play on streets in front of a backdrop of politically-charged street art commemorating the violence and bloodshed of 'The Troubles'.

These murals have become street wallpaper for the people living in this small corner of Europe, who appear to barely bat an eyelid at a gory depiction of a skeleton crawling over dead bodies that adorns the end wall of a house on their street.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

A man checks his cellphone beside a loyalist paramilitary mural in the Waterside area of Derry.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

Pigeons fly past a mural in the Shankill Road area of West Belfast depicting a Gaelic myth about the claiming of Ulster.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

A mural shows tributes to Britain's Queen Elizabeth on the Shankill Road in West Belfast.

Most of the murals promote either Republican or Loyalist political beliefs. They often glorify paramilitary groups such as the IRA or the Ulster Volunteer Force with a roll call of the dead written large "lest we forget".

However since the paramilitary ceasefires of the 1990s, this distinctively Northern Irish artwork has seen a shift in tone. New murals have sprung up depicting local heroes like golfer Rory McIlroy, who represent the changing face of the province's political landscape.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

Golfer Rory McIlroy, who hails from County Down, is pictured on a wall in the Holylands area of Belfast.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

A mural in the village of Cushendall in north Antrim commemorates 100 years of the local Gaelic Athletic Club.

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

A mural features Irish boxer Michael Conlan winning a bronze medal in the flyweight division at the 2012 Summer Olympics on a wall in the Falls Road area of West Belfast.

It would be nice to think that one day there will be no need to paint any more murals to commemorate new victims of Northern Ireland's troubled history. But with the annual marching season fast approaching, and following the most sustained period of rioting for years, I think there may well be a few more turns in this journey yet — and fresh paint on the wall.

Read more at Reuters' Photographers Blog.

Editor's note: Images taken between Feb. 19 and Feb. 23, 2013 and made available to NBC News today.

Related:

Belfast 'Peace Wall' still separates Catholics, Protestants

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Outside the Frame: Journalists under fire in Belfast riot

A spat over the flag fluttering over a local government building might sound trivial. But in Northern Ireland, the decision to stop permanently flying the British flag outside Belfast City Hall has sparked some of the worst violence since the 1998 Good Friday peace deal.

Dozens of officers have been injured in attacks on police lines by furious protesters who, night after night, have thrown stones, bottles, fireworks, and, sometimes, Molotov cocktails -- violence that police say is orchestrated by the Ulster Volunteer Force, a pro-British paramilitary group.

Gunshots were heard Saturday, although police said later it appeared that blank rounds had been used. Monday night saw a mix of peaceful protest and riots during which police used water canon and fired plastic bullets, ITV News reported. 

Peter Muhly / AFP - Getty Images

Loyalist protesters confront police as they gather at Belfast City Hall during a city council meeting Monday evening.

According to one pro-British politician, the demonstrators are staging a “revolution with a small r” against attempts by Irish nationalist parties to “remove their Britishness.”

Irish nationalists say they wanted to stop flying the flag from outside city hall because it is also used by pro-British paramilitaries and others to mark out their territory in the divided city and “intimidate” Catholics.

The Good Friday Agreement was credited with largely ending three decades of sectarian violence known as "The Troubles," during which British troops were sent in to patrol the streets and at least 3,600 people were killed.

It created an elected Northern Ireland assembly and devolved government in which power is shared between all sides, with traditional arch-enemies remarkably sitting side by side. The assembly meets in an imposing historic building, Stormont, over which the British flag flies for just 15 pre-agreed days each year. The recent violence was sparked by a vote that agreed a similar policy at local government level in Belfast last month.

Naomi Long, deputy leader of the Alliance Party, warned Northern Ireland was now facing "an incredibly volatile and extremely serious situation."

"I don't think anyone should underestimate the threat it poses to long-term peace and security in Northern Ireland," she told NBC News.

"If people continue with violence, if it continues to escalate, if paramilitary involvement in that violence continues to grow, there's a real risk that we lose the progress we've made," Long said.

Long described the violence as a "reality check." While politics had delivered the peace process, she said, true reconciliation between the divided communities had been "left to one side because it's painful and difficult."

"What we have had is a papering over of the cracks," she said. "We have deep divisions, deep hatred and sectarianism and it won't go away by itself."

Long, a member of the U.K. parliament, said she and other politicians had received death threats after the Alliance Party members on Belfast City Council voted for an attempted compromise deal over the flag on Dec. 3. 

It allowed the British flag to be flown on a number of designated days -- about 17 or 18 depending on the year -- rather than all the time or not at all.

Cops hurt as British unionist protesters try to storm Belfast City Hall in flag spat

An angry mob tried to storm the council chamber on the night of the vote and protests have continued sporadically since, with Monday seeing the fifth straight night of violence as the council met for the first time since last month’s controversial vote.

Police said Monday afternoon in an emailed statement that 96 people had been arrested since the latest unrest broke out and 61 police officers had been injured.

'Attempt to kill': Police in Belfast attacked as flag riots rage on

Billy Hutchinson, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, which he said provides political advice to the UVF, told NBC News that the flag decision had “driven people mad.”

“I think what this is about is ordinary citizens who feel people are trying to remove their Britishness,” he said.

“You need to remember that this is the United Kingdom and the flag of the country is the union flag,” he added. “It would be a bit like if people wanted to take down the Stars and Stripes from some local government in the U.S.”

Paul Mcerlane / EPA

Local shoppers waiting for a bus watch as riot police follow pro-British protesters away from Belfast's City Hall during a protest Saturday.

State collusion in 1989 murder of Belfast lawyer 'shocking,' British PM says

Hutchinson said this was one of a number of actions by Sinn Fein that were “outside the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.”

“I think the flag issue is a very big issue, I think it was the straw that broke the camel’s back … the catalyst that brought people onto the streets,” he said.

“I think it is serious, I think people need to recognize this is a revolution with a small ‘r.’ We cannot sustain this sort of inequality coming from Sinn Fein, who are disguising it as equality. They cannot force this through,” he said.

“I think if you listen to what the protesters are doing and saying, I think it is a threat [to the peace process]. It’s not a threat of armed violence… it’s a threat of community and political action,” he added.

Hutchinson stressed he believed in peaceful protest, and would seek to persude any UVF members taking part in violence to stop.

Clinton condemns violence, revisits family legacy in trip to Belfast

Jim McVeigh, leader of Sinn Fein’s councilors on Belfast City Council, said they had thought it would be better to have no national flags at city hall, but had agreed to the compromise deal, which was passed with votes from the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party, and the non-aligned Alliance Party.

“The issue of the flag and allegiance and identity is a very important one here in Belfast. [In the city] you will see flags are used to mark out territory … to intimidate,” he told NBC News, highlighting murals painted on walls and national colors on curbs.

Cathal Mcnaughton / Reuters

A burnt out car blocks Dee Street in east Belfast Sunday near a mural that supports the Ulster Volunteer Force paramilitary group.

McVeigh, who said he has had death threats since the vote, said he had expected some protests after the decision on Dec. 3, but added no one anticipated it would be “as ferocious as it has been.”

“The bottom line is we made the right decision. We’re not going to change that decision. The flag is not going to go back up [permanently]. These protests are futile,” he said.

A spokesman for the police trade union in Northern Ireland, who asked not to be named, told NBC News that the police were “severely stretched” in dealing with the riots and also the threat from dissident Irish nationalist groups.

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Cathal Mcnaughton / Reuters

A woman walks past a mural to murdered lawyer Pat Finucane on the Fall's Road in West Belfast on Wednesday.

LONDON -- British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday there had been "shocking" levels of state collusion in the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989.

Cameron was quoting from a new report into the killing of Finucane by British lawyer Sir Desmond de Silva, saying that while it did not find that there had been an "over-arching state conspiracy" over the murder, it was still "extremely difficult reading."

Finucane, a Catholic whose clients included members of the anti-British Irish Republican Army (IRA) guerrilla group, was shot dead by pro-British paramilitaries in front of his wife and their three children as they sat down to dinner.

'Attempt to kill': Police in Belfast attacked as flag riots rage on

There have since been long-running allegations of state collusion in the murder, one of the most controversial in 30 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.

Speaking in parliament, Cameron said of the report: "It sets out the extent of collusion in areas such as identifying, targeting and murdering Mr. Finucane, supplying a weapon and facilitating its later disappearance and deliberately obstructing subsequent investigations."

He repeated a British government apology to Finucane's relatives but said he would not order a full public inquiry, as the family have been demanding.

Clinton condemns violence, revisits family legacy in trip to Belfast

Finucane's widow, Geraldine, said the report was "a sham... a whitewash... confidence trick," ITV News reported.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Ed Miliband called for a full public inquiry into the murder and said the De Silva report had its limits.

Reuters and ITV News, NBC News' U.K. partner, contributed to this report.

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Cathal Mcnaughton / Reuters

A forensic officer works on an unmarked police car in East Belfast Monday, after it was attacked by rioters.

BELFAST -- Police were attacked in Northern Ireland on Monday night by protesters enraged by a decision to remove the British flag from Belfast City Hall, which has sparked eight consecutive days of demonstrations.

About 15 masked men broke out of a crowd assembled in the predominantly Protestant Newtownards Road area of Belfast, smashed the windows of a police car and threw a Molotov cocktail into it while an officer was still inside, police said.

The officer escaped unharmed but the Police Service of Northern Ireland said they were treating the attack as attempted murder.

The attack was one of a series of protests across the city on Monday during which stones and fireworks were hurled at police, who responded with water cannons in at least two locations.

Clinton condemns violence, revisits family legacy in trip to Belfast

Loyalists -- or supporters of Northern Ireland remaining part of the U.K. -- have been protesting against a decision taken mainly by Irish nationalist city councilors from political parties Sinn Fein and the SDLP to take down the British flag which has flown above the provincial capital's city hall every day since it opened in 1906.

Cops hurt as British unionist protesters try to storm Belfast City Hall in flag spat

The decision means Britain's Union Jack will now fly on only 17 days of the year, as is the case at the provincial assembly at Stormont in the British-controlled province.

Teen charged in riots
The Molotov cocktail attack happened outside the constituency office of Naomi Long, a member of the British parliament for the non-sectarian, centrist Alliance Party.

"This was a planned attempt to kill a police officer which also put the lives of the public in danger," Assistant Chief Constable George Hamilton said.

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

Long was forced to flee her home last week after receiving threats over her party's support of the removal of the flag from City Hall.

Later on Monday night, police separated rival loyalist and republican crowds rioting in a flashpoint area between the loyalist east Belfast and the small nationalist Short Strand enclave.

Violence has raged for seven of the last eight days since the decision, in Belfast and around the and nearly 30 officers have been injured.

About 10 people have appeared in court charged with offences linked to the rioting - the youngest just 13 years of age.

Decades of violence between the province's mainly Catholic republicans and pro-British Protestants largely ended when a peace agreement was signed in 1998, but much of Belfast remains divided along sectarian lines.

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